Death Enables More Evolved Life-forms. {196.}

Death Enables More Evolved Life-forms. {196.}
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“I died from minerality and became vegetable;
And from vegetativeness I died and became animal.
I died from animality and became human.
Then why fear disappearance through death?
Next time I shall die
Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;
After that, soaring higher than angels.
What you cannot imagine,
I shall be that.”

---- Jalaluddin Rumi.
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In the Beloved's Loving Arms. {182.}

In the Beloved's Loving Arms. {182.}
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“How did you get away?
You were the pet falcon of an old woman.
Did you hear the falcon-drum?
You were a drunken songbird put in with owls.
Did you smell the odor of a garden?
You got tired of sour fermenting
and left the tavern.

You went like an arrow to the target
from the bow of time and place.
The man who stays at the cemetery pointed the way,
but you didn’t go.
You became light and gave up wanting to be famous.
You don’t worry about what you’re going to eat,
so why buy an engraved belt?

I’ve heard of living at the centre,
but what about leaving the centre of the centre?
Flying toward thankfulness, you become the rare bird
with one wing made of fear, and one of hope.
In autumn, a rose crawling along the ground in the cold wind.
Rain on the roof runs down and out by the spout
as fast as it can.

Talking is pain. Lie down and rest,
now that you’ve found a friend to be with.”

---- Mystical poem by Jalaluddin Rumi.
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Intoxicating Ecstasy of God Realization. {154.}

Intoxicating Ecstasy of God Realization. {154.}
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“Ride one! Ride on! Do not remain behind.
Know this! Know this! Your situation is most clear.
Gallop! Gallop! You are fast riders.
Be proud! Be proud! You are among the beauties in the world.
What do you have?
What do you have that the beloved does not have?
Bring that! Bring that! Whisper it in my ears.
The night before last, the night before last, what was the tavern like?
Tell me that! Tell me that, if you are drunken wanderers of the night.
God has a wine; God has a wine hidden from all;
You and the world were created from a sip of that wine.

---- Jalaluddin Rumi; Divan 637:1-5.
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“I’m Wind, You Are Fire.” {147.}

“I’m Wind, You Are Fire.” {147.}
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“O you who’ve gone on pilgrimage --
where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved!
Oh come now, come, oh come!
Your friend, he is your neighbor,
he is next to your wall --
You, erring in the desert --
what air of love is this?
If you’d see the Beloved’s
form without any form --
You are the house, the master,
You are the Kaaba, you! . . .
Where is a bunch of roses,
if you would be this garden?
Where, one soul’s pearly essence
when you’re the Sea of God?
That’s true -- and yet your troubles
may turn to treasures rich --
How sad that you yourself veil
the treasure that is yours!”

---- Jalaluddin Rumi.
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Traits of the True Sufi. {119.}

Traits of the True Sufi. {119.}
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“What makes the Sufi? Purity of heart;
Not the patched mantle and the lust perverse
Of those vile earth-bound men who steal his name.
He in all dregs discerns the essence pure:
In hardship ease, in tribulation joy.
The phantom sentries, who with batons drawn
Guard Beauty’s place-gate and curtained bower,
Give way before him, unafraid he passes,
And showing the King’s arrow, enters in.”

---- Jalaluddin Rumi.
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If God Were to Manifest. {91.}

If God Were to Manifest. {91.}
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“If the flowers of His face, from the garden they are in, burst into laughter;
The spring of life would be renewed, the tree of body would burst into laughter.
If that essence of the essence of life appeared all by Himself;
My body would come to life with the Grace, my soul would burst into laughter.
If that speaker par excellence opened His mouth to speak;
The dead body would gain the power of speech,
the stuttering heart would burst into laughter.
If that master of all beauty revealed the beauty of His face;
All the robes of beauty would {be torn apart and } burst into laughter.”

---- “Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi.”
Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz; Divan 2525:1-2, 4-5, 7.
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Uncontrollable Mystical Love for God. {84.}

Uncontrollable Mystical Love for God. {84.}
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“Again I am raging, I am in such a state, by your soul
that every bond you bind, I break, by your soul.
I am like heaven, like the moon, like a candle by your glow;
I am all reason, all love, all soul, by your soul.
My joy is of your doing, my hangover of your thorn;
whatever side you turn your face, I turn mine, by your soul.
I spoke in error; it is not surprising to speak in error in this state,
for this moment I cannot tell cup from wine, by your soul.
I am that madman in bonds who binds the “divs”;
I, the madman, am a Solomon with the “divs”, by your soul.
Whatever form other than love raises up its head from my heart,
forthwith I drive it out of the court of my heart, by your soul.
Come, you who have departed, for the thing that departs comes back;
neither you are that, by my soul, nor I am that, by your soul.
Disbeliever, do not conceal disbelief in your soul,
for I will recite the secret of your destiny, by your soul.
Out of love of Sham-e-Tabrizi, through wakefulness or nightrising,
like a spinning mote I am distraught, by your soul.

---- “Mystical Poems of {Jalaluddin} Rumi 2”; translated by A. J. Arberry.
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